Well, It's Interesting!

Those are the words that Eli's surgeon spoke to me today when he called me from the OR to update me on why the surgery was taking so long. He then said that he'd be out soon to draw me a diagram and further explain what had happened. Evidently, what was thought to be something straightforward, turned out to not be so simple. Eli ended up having to have some bone removed and some reconstructive microsurgery as well.

Medical terms are weird, for sure--even for those of us that have taken medical terminology! Ossiculoplasty. Stapes immobilization. Tympanoplasty. None of these words meant anything to me before today, but now they have become very personal words. Here are some definitions:

Ossicles: the three smallest bones in the human body. The ossicles consist of the malleus, incus, and stapes (known also as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, found in the middle ear. They are part of the system that amplifies sound vibrations that enter the middle ear.
Ossiculoplasty: an operation to repair or replace malformed or damaged ossicles.
Stapes: (also known as the stirrup is the stirrup–shaped small bone or ossicle in the middle ear which attaches the incus to the oval window which is next to the vestibule of the inner ear. It is the smallest bone in the human body.
Tympanoplasty: A surgical operation to correct damage to the middle ear and restore the integrity of bones of the middle ear and the ear drum. Tympano- comes from the Greek tympanon meaning drum. (this was done to fix the damage to the tympanic membrane--eardrum--from the ossiculoplasty itself)
Conductive hearing loss: a hearing loss that is caused by a problem in the outer or middle ear and causes problems with the conduction of sound to the inner ear.

So, there it is in a nutshell...Eli is doing great so far...he's doped up on pain meds and has a 72 hour medication patch on his shoulder to help prevent dizziness and nausea. His sutures look awful, but he's so numb that he doesn't feel them (yet!).

Signing off to give the kid another dose to dope him up some more :)